Temperature

There is a continued push to enhance material performance at specific operating temperatures and expand the temperature range that materials can reliably operate within. At any given operating temperature, it is overwhelmingly the mechanical properties that dictate the feasibility of using a material. Optimizing temperature- dependent mechanical properties typically requires extensive and lengthy R&D efforts to develop the next-generation of materials. Nanomechanical testing encompasses a powerful set of quantitative techniques to assist in accelerating materials development through understanding temperature-dependent mechanical properties at the nanoscale and microscale.

Hysitron has developed a comprehensive suite of nanomechanical testing techniques and temperature control stages to achieve a fundamental knowledge of temperature-specific mechanical and tribological properties. These techniques provide the ability to quantitatively measure mechanical and tribological properties of thin films, individual microstructures and phases within a material, material interfaces, and composition gradients under non-ambient conditions. The ability to quantitatively characterize individual constituents of a material allows researchers to decrease development times by providing data critical to developing next-generation materials that can reliably perform at a targeted temperature.